Before Christmas 1938, a 29-year-old British stockbroker of German-Jewish origin named Nicholas Winton planned to fly to Switzerland for a ski vacation when he decided to travel to Prague instead to help a friend who was involved in Jewish refugee work.[26] Thereafter, he established an organisation to aid Jewish children from Czechoslovakia separated from their families by the Nazis, setting up an office at a dining room table in his hotel in Wenceslas Square.[27] He ultimately found homes for 669 children.[28] Winton's mother also worked with him to place the children in homes, and later hostels, with a team of sponsors from groups like MaidenheadRotary Club and Rugby Refugee Committee.[22][29] Throughout the summer, he placed advertisements seeking British families to take them in. The last group, which left Prague on 3 September 1939, was sent back because the Nazis had invaded Poland – the start of the Second World War.[22]

n 1939, Sugihara became a vice-consul of the Japanese Consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. His duties included reporting on Soviet and German troop movements,[2] and to find out if Germany planned an attack on the Soviets and, if so, to report the details of this attack to his superiors in Berlin and Tokyo.[10]

Sugihara had cooperated with Polish intelligence as part of a bigger Japanese–Polish cooperative plan.[11] As the Soviet Union occupied sovereign Lithuania in 1940, many Jewish refugees from Poland (Polish Jews) as well as Lithuanian Jews tried to acquire exit visas. Without the visas, it was dangerous to travel, yet it was impossible to find countries willing to issue them. Hundreds of refugees came to the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, trying to get a visa to Japan. At the time, on the brink of the war, Lithuanian Jews made up one third of Lithuania's urban population and half of the residents of every town as well.[12] In the period 16 July - 3 August 1940 the Dutch Honorary Consul Jan Zwartendijk provided over 2,200 Jews with an official third destination to Curaçao, a Caribbean island and Dutch colony that required no entry visa, or Surinam (which, upon independence in 1975, became Suriname). At the time, the Japanese government required that visas be issued only to those who had gone through appropriate immigration procedures and had enough funds. Most of the refugees did not fulfill these criteria. Sugihara dutifully contacted the Japanese Foreign Ministry three times for instructions. Each time, the Ministry responded that anybody granted a visa should have a visa to a third destination to exit Japan, with no exceptions.[2]

From 18 July to 28 August 1940, aware that applicants were in danger if they stayed behind, Sugihara decided to grant visas on his own. He ignored the requirements and issued ten-day visas to Jews for transit through Japan, in violation of his orders. Given his inferior post and the culture of the Japanese Foreign Service bureaucracy, this was an unusual act of disobedience. He spoke to Soviet officials who agreed to let the Jews travel through the country via the Trans-Siberian Railway at five times the standard ticket price.

1940 issued visa by consul Sugihara in Lithuania, showing a journey taken through the Soviet Union, Tsuruga, and Curaçao
Sugihara continued to hand-write visas, reportedly spending 18–20 hours a day on them, producing a normal month's worth of visas each day, until 4 September, when he had to leave his post before the consulate was closed. By that time he had granted thousands of visas to Jews, many of whom were heads of households and thus permitted to take their families with them. According to witnesses, he was still writing visas while in transit from his hotel and after boarding the train at the Kaunas Railway Station, throwing visas into the crowd of desperate refugees out of the train's window even as the train pulled out.

Consular Office with Original Consular Flag in Kaunas
In final desperation, blank sheets of paper with only the consulate seal and his signature (that could be later written over into a visa) were hurriedly prepared and flung out from the train. As he prepared to depart, he said, "Please forgive me. I cannot write anymore. I wish you the best." When he bowed deeply to the people before him, someone exclaimed, "Sugihara. We'll never forget you. I'll surely see you again!"[4]

Sugihara himself wondered about official reaction to the thousands of visas he issued. Many years later, he recalled, "No one ever said anything about it. I remember thinking that they probably didn't realize how many I actually issued."[13]

The total number of Jews saved by Sugihara is in dispute, estimating about 6,000; family visas—which allowed several people to travel on one visa—were also issued, which would account for the much higher figure. The Simon Wiesenthal Center has estimated that Chiune Sugihara issued transit visas for about 6,000 Jews and that around 40,000 descendants of the Jewish refugees are alive today because of his actions.[2] Polish intelligence produced some false visas.[14] Sugihara's widow and eldest son estimate that he saved 10,000 Jews from certain death, whereas Boston University professor and author, Hillel Levine, also estimates that he helped "as many as 10,000 people", but that far fewer people ultimately survived.[15] Indeed, some Jews who received Sugihara's visas failed to leave Lithuania in time, were later captured by the Germans who invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, and perished in the Holocaust.

Recreation of Sugihara's Consular Desk in Kaunas
The Diplomatic Record Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened to the public two documents concerning Sugihara's file: the first aforementioned document is a 5 February 1941 diplomatic note from Chiune Sugihara to Japan's then Foreign Minister Yōsuke Matsuoka in which Sugihara stated he issued 1,500 out of 2,139 transit visas to Jews and Poles; however, since most of the 2,139 people were not Jewish, this would imply that most of the visas were given to Polish Jews instead. Levine then notes that another document from the same foreign office file "indicates an additional 3,448 visas were issued in Kaunas for a total of 5,580 visas" which were likely given to Jews desperate to flee Lithuania for safety in Japan or Japanese occupied China.

Many refugees used their visas to travel across the Soviet Union to Vladivostok and then by boat to Kobe, Japan, where there was a Jewish community. Tadeusz Romer, the Polish ambassador in Tokyo, organised help for them. From August 1940 to November 1941, he had managed to get transit visas in Japan, asylum visas to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Burma, immigration certificates to the British Mandate of Palestine, and immigrant visas to the United States and some Latin American countries for more than two thousand Polish-Lithuanian Jewish refugees, who arrived in Kobe, Japan, and the Shanghai Ghetto, China.

The remaining number of Sugihara survivors stayed in Japan until they were deported to Japanese-held Shanghai, where there was already a large Jewish community that had existed as early as the mid-1930s. Some took the route through Korea directly to Shanghai without passing through Japan. A group of thirty people, all possessing a visa of "Jakub Goldberg", were bounced back and forth on the open sea for several weeks before finally being allowed to pass through Tsuruga.[16] Most of the around 20,000 Jews survived the Holocaust in the Shanghai ghetto until the Japanese surrender in 1945, three to four months following the collapse of the Third Reich itself.

The force and skill with which the first elements hit the beach and proceed may determine the ultimate success of the operation.... With troops engaged for the first time, the behavior pattern of all is apt to be set by those first engagements. [It is] considered that accurate information of the existing situation should be available for each succeeding element as it lands. You should have when you get to shore an overall picture in which you can place confidence. I believe I can contribute materially on all of the above by going in with the assault companies. Furthermore I personally know both officers and men of these advance units and believe that it will steady them to know that I am with them.[29]

Barton approved Roosevelt's written request with much misgiving, stating that he did not expect Roosevelt to return alive.

Roosevelt was the only general on D-Day to land by sea with the first wave of troops. At 56, he was the oldest man in the invasion,[30] and the only one whose son also landed that day; CaptainQuentin Roosevelt II was among the first wave of soldiers at Omaha Beach.[31]

Brigadier General Roosevelt was one of the first soldiers, along with Captain Leonard T. Schroeder Jr., off his landing craft as he led the 8th Infantry Regiment and 70th Tank Battalion landing at Utah Beach. Roosevelt was soon informed that the landing craft had drifted south of their objective, and the first wave of men was a mile off course. Walking with the aid of a cane and carrying a pistol, he personally made a reconnaissance of the area immediately to the rear of the beach to locate the causeways that were to be used for the advance inland. He returned to the point of landing and contacted the commanders of the two battalions, Lieutenant Colonels Conrad C. Simmons and Carlton O. MacNeely, and coordinated the attack on the enemy positions confronting them. Opting to fight from where they had landed rather than trying to move to their assigned positions, Roosevelt's famous words were, "We’ll start the war from right here!"[34]

These impromptu plans worked with complete success and little confusion. With artillery landing close by, each follow-on regiment was personally welcomed on the beach by a cool, calm, and collected Roosevelt, who inspired all with humor and confidence, reciting poetry and telling anecdotes of his father to steady the nerves of his men. Roosevelt pointed almost every regiment to its changed objective. Sometimes he worked under fire as a self-appointed traffic cop, untangling traffic jams of trucks and tanks all struggling to get inland and off the beach.[35] One GI later reported that seeing the general walking around, apparently unaffected by the enemy fire, even when clods of earth fell down on him, gave him the courage to get on with the job, saying if the general is like that it can't be that bad.[citation needed]

When Major General Barton, the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, came ashore, he met Roosevelt not far from the beach. He later wrote:

While I was mentally framing [orders], Ted Roosevelt came up. He had landed with the first wave, had put my troops across the beach, and had a perfect picture (just as Roosevelt had earlier promised if allowed to go ashore with the first wave) of the entire situation. I loved Ted. When I finally agreed to his landing with the first wave, I felt sure he would be killed. When I had bade him goodbye, I never expected to see him alive. You can imagine then the emotion with which I greeted him when he came out to meet me [near La Grande Dune]. He was bursting with information.[36]

By modifying his division's original plan on the beach, Roosevelt enabled its troops to achieve their mission objectives by coming ashore and attacking north behind the beach toward its original objective. Years later, Omar Bradley was asked to name the single most heroic action he had ever seen in combat. He replied, "Ted Roosevelt on Utah Beach."

In 1940, Pilecki presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp at Oświęcim (the Polish name of the locality), gather intelligence on the camp from the inside and organize inmate resistance.[18] Until then, little had been known about how the Germans ran the camp, and it was thought to be an internment camp or large prison rather than a death camp. His superiors approved the plan and provided him with a false identity card in the name of "Tomasz Serafiński".[20] On 19 September 1940, he deliberately went out during a Warsaw street roundup (łapanka) and was caught by the Germans, along with some 2000 civilians (among them, Władysław Bartoszewski).[20] After two days of detention in the Light Horse Guards Barracks, where prisoners suffered beatings with rubber truncheons,[21] Pilecki was sent to Auschwitz and was assigned inmate number 4859.[20] During his imprisonment, Pilecki was promoted by the Home Army to the rank of Porucznik (first lieutenant).[14]

ZOW provided the Polish underground with invaluable information about the camp.[22] From October 1940, ZOW sent reports to Warsaw,[24] and beginning in March 1941, Pilecki's reports were being forwarded via the Polish resistance to the British government in London.[25] In 1942, Pilecki's resistance movement was also broadcasting details on the number of arrivals and deaths in the camp and the inmates' conditions using a radio transmitter that was built by camp inmates. The secret radio station, built over seven months using smuggled parts, was broadcasting from the camp until the autumn of 1942, when it was dismantled by Pilecki's men after concerns that the Germans might discover its location because of "one of our fellow's big mouth".[21]

These reports were a principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz for the Western Allies. Pilecki hoped that either the Allies would drop arms or troops into the camp or that the Home Army would organize an assault on it from outside. Such plans, however, were all judged impossible to carry out.[14][23] Meanwhile, the Camp Gestapo under SS-Untersturmfuhrer Maximilian Grabner redoubled its efforts to ferret out ZOW members, succeeding in killing many of them.[14][26] Pilecki decided to break out of the camp with the hope of convincing Home Army leaders personally that a rescue attempt was a valid option. When he was assigned to a night shift at a camp bakery outside the fence, he and two comrades overpowered a guard, cut the phone line and escaped on the night of 26/27 April 1943, taking with them documents stolen from the Germans.

After 1942, Duckwitz worked with the Nazi Reich representative Werner Best, who organized the Gestapo. On 11 September 1943 Best told Duckwitz about the intended round-up of all Danish Jews on 1 October. Duckwitz travelled to Berlin to attempt stopping the deportation through official channels.[4] That failed and he flew to Stockholm two weeks later, ostensibly to discuss the passage of German merchant ships. While there, he contacted Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson and asked whether Sweden would be willing to receive Danish Jewish refugees. In a couple of days, Hansson promised them a favourable reception.[citation needed]

Back in Denmark on 29 September, Duckwitz contacted Danish social democratHans Hedtoft and notified him of the intended deportation. Hedtoft warned the head of the Jewish community C.B. Henriques and the acting chief rabbiMarcus Melchior, who spread the warning. Sympathetic Danes in all walks of life organized a mass escape of over 7,200 Jews and 700 of their non-Jewish relatives by sea to Sweden.

World War II and Circular 14
Refugees in Belgium, May 1940 F4499
In 1932 the Portuguese dictatorship of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar began and by 1933 the secret police had been created, the State Defense and Surveillance Police, PIDE. According to historian Avraham Milgram by 1938 Salazar "knew the Nazis' approach to the 'Jewish question'. From fears that aliens might undermine the regime, entry was severely limited. Toward this end the apparatus of the PIDE was extended with its International Department given greater control over border patrol and the entry of aliens. Presumably most aliens wishing to enter Portugal at that time were Jews."[29]Portugal during World War II like its European counterparts adopted tighter immigration policies preventing refugees from settling in the country. Circular 10, on October 28 of 1938, addressed to consular representatives, deemed that settling was forbidden to Jews, allowing entrance on a tourist visa for thirty days.[30]

On November 9 of 1938 the Nazi government of Germany began open war against its Jewish citizens in the pogrom known as Kristallnacht, when 1,000 synagogues were burned, 30,000 Jews were arrested and at least 91 Jews were murdered. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, home at that time to the largest Jewish community in the world, precipitating the beginning of World War II. Salazar reacted by sending a telegram to the Portuguese Embassy in Berlin ordering that it should be made clear to the German Reich that Portuguese law did not allow any distinction based on race and therefore Portuguese Jewish citizens could not be discriminated against.[31]

The German invasion of Poland led France and the United Kingdom to declare war on Germany. The number of refugees trying to make use of Portugal's neutrality as an escape route increased and between the months of September and December approximately 9,000 refugees entered Portugal.[32] Passport forgery and false statements were common. The regime felt the need for tighter control. By 1939 the Police had already dismantled several criminal networks responsible for passport forgery and several consuls had been expelled from service for falsifying passports.[33]

On November 11 of 1939, the Portuguese government sent Circular 14 to all Portuguese consuls throughout Europe stating the categories of war refugees whom the PVDE considered to be "inconvenient or dangerous."[34] The Dispatch allowed consuls to keep on granting Portuguese transit visas, but established that in the case of "Foreigners of indefinite or contested nationality, the Stateless, Russian Citizens, Holders of a Nansen passport, or Jews expelled from their countries and those alleging to embark from a Portuguese port without a consular visa for their country of destination, or air or sea tickets, or an Embarkation Guarantee from the respective companies, the consuls needed to ask permission in advance to the Foreign Ministry head office in Lisbon."[35] With Europe at war this meant that refugees fleeing from Nazism would have serious difficulties.

Historian Neill Lochery asserts that Circular 14 "was not issued out of thin air" and that this type of barrier was not unique to Portugal and with the country's very limited economic resources it was viewed as necessary. It was economic reasons rather than ideological reasons that made the Portuguese avoid accepting more refugees says Lochery.[36] Milgram expressed similar views, asserting that Portugal's regime did not distinguish between Jews and non-Jews but rather between immigrant Jews who came and had the means to leave the country and those lacking them.[37] Portugal prevented Jews from putting down roots in the country not because they were Jews but because the regime feared foreign influence in general, and feared the entrance of Bolsheviks and left-wing agitators fleeing from Germany.[37] Milgram believes that antisemitic ideological patterns had no hold in the ruling structure of the "Estado Novo" and a fortiori in the various strata of Portuguese society.[38] Milgram also says that modern anti-Semitism failed "to establish even a toehold in Portugal"[39] while it grew racist and virulent elsewhere in early twentieth-century Europe. Salazar`s policies towards the Jews seem to have been favorable and consistent. "[38] Nevertheless although it was not anti-Semitism that motivated the Portuguese government, but the danger of mass emigration to the country,[40]the outcome of the border policy made life difficult for Jews fleeing Nazism.

Sousa Mendes' disobedience to the orders of the Salazar dictatorship
Aristides de Sousa Mendes, 1940
According to Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, past Director of the Department of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, "In Portugal of those days, it was unthinkable for a diplomatic official, especially in a sensitive post, to disobey clear-cut instructions and get away with it."[41] However Yad Vashem historian Avraham Milgram has a different view. Milgram says that "issuing visas in contravention of instructions was widespread at Portuguese consulates all over Europe" and that "this form of insubordination was rife in consular circles."[42] Sousa Mendes began disobeying Dispatch 14 almost immediately, on the grounds that it was an inhumane and racist directive.[43]

Life saving visa issued by Dr. Aristides de Sousa Mendes on June 19, 1940, bearing the signature of his secretary José Seabra.
The process that ended with Sousa Mendes’ discharge from his consular career began with two visas: the first issued on November 28, 1939 to Professor Arnold Wiznitzer, an Austrian historian who had been stripped of his nationality by the Nuremberg Laws, and the second on March 1, 1940 to the Spanish Republican Eduardo Neira Laporte, an anti-Franco activist living in France.[44] Sousa Mendes was reprimanded and warned in writing that "any new transgression or violation on this issue will be considered disobedience and will entail a disciplinary procedure where it will not be possible to overlook that you have repeatedly committed acts which have entailed warnings and reprimands."[45]

When Sousa Mendes issued these visas and thousands of others, it was a deliberate act of disobedience to the decree of an authoritarian dictatorship. "Here was a unique act by a man who believed his religion imposed certain obligations", said Paldiel. "He said, 'I'm saving innocent lives,' as simply as he might have said, 'Come, walk with me in my garden.'"[46]

It is also by this time that Andrée Cibial, a French pianist and singer disturbed Sousa Mendes' marriage. Andrée became his mistress and eventually got pregnant. Cibial did publicly announce the fact during a Sunday's mass at Riberac cathedral.[47]

On May 10, 1940, Germany launched the blitzkrieg offensive against France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, and millions of refugees took to the roads. On May 15, Sousa Mendes issued transit visas to Maria Tavares, a Luxembourg citizen of Portuguese origin, and to her husband Paul Miny, also a Luxembourger.[48] Two weeks later, the couple returned to the Bordeaux Consulate asking Sousa Mendes to issue them false papers.[49] Sousa Mendes agreed to their request, and on May 30, 1940, he issued a Portuguese passport listing Paul Miny as Maria's brother, therefore as having Portuguese citizenship. This time Sousa Mendes risked himself a great deal more than he had before; disobeying Dispatch 14 was one thing, but issuing a passport with a false identity, for someone of military age was a crime.[50] Sousa Mendes later provided the following explanation: "This couple asked me for a Portuguese passport, where they would figure as brother and sister, for fear that the husband, who was still of military age, would be detained on passing the French border, and incorporated in the Luxembourg army then being organized in France."[51] Under the terms imposed by the German occupation of Luxembourg in World War II, that army was under Nazi control.

There were other cases from May 1940 where Sousa Mendes disobeyed Dispatch 14 issued by the Salazar dictatorship. Examples include issuing visas to the Ertag, Flaksbaum and Landesman families, all granted on May 29, despite having been rejected in a telegram from the Portuguese dictator Salazar to Sousa Mendes.[52] Another example is the writer Gisèle Quittner, rejected by Salazar but rescued by Sousa Mendes, to whom she expressed her gratitude: "You are Portugal's best propaganda and an honor to your country. All those who know you praise your courage...."[53]

Emancipation of enslaved Africans
The hopes of the abolitionists notwithstanding, slavery did not wither with the end of the slave trade in the British Empire, nor did the living conditions of the enslaved improve. The trade continued, with few countries following suit by abolishing the trade, and with some British ships disregarding the legislation. Wilberforce worked with the members of the African Institution to ensure the enforcement of abolition and to promote abolitionist negotiations with other countries.[159][197][198] In particular, the US had abolished the slave trade in 1808, and Wilberforce lobbied the American government to enforce its own prohibition more strongly.[199]

The same year, Wilberforce moved his family from Clapham to a sizeable mansion with a large garden in Kensington Gore, closer to the Houses of Parliament. Never strong, and by 1812 in worsening health, Wilberforce resigned his Yorkshire seat, and became MP for the rotten borough of Bramber in Sussex, a seat with little or no constituency obligations, thus allowing him more time for his family and the causes that interested him.[200] From 1816 Wilberforce introduced a series of bills which would require the compulsory registration of slaves, together with details of their country of origin, permitting the illegal importation of foreign slaves to be detected. Later in the same year he began publicly to denounce slavery itself, though he did not demand immediate emancipation, as "They had always thought the slaves incapable of liberty at present, but hoped that by degrees a change might take place as the natural result of the abolition."[201]

In 1820, after a period of poor health, and with his eyesight failing, Wilberforce took the decision to further limit his public activities,[202] although he became embroiled in unsuccessful mediation attempts between King George IV, and his estranged wife Caroline of Brunswick, who had sought her rights as queen.[12] Nevertheless, Wilberforce still hoped "to lay a foundation for some future measures for the emancipation of the poor slaves", which he believed should come about gradually in stages.[203] Aware that the cause would need younger men to continue the work, in 1821 he asked fellow MP Thomas Fowell Buxton to take over leadership of the campaign in the Commons.[202] As the 1820s wore on, Wilberforce increasingly became a figurehead for the abolitionist movement, although he continued to appear at anti-slavery meetings, welcoming visitors, and maintaining a busy correspondence on the subject.[204][205][206]

The year 1823 saw the founding of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery (later the Anti-Slavery Society),[207] and the publication of Wilberforce's 56-page Appeal to the Religion, Justice and Humanity of the Inhabitants of the British Empire in Behalf of the Negro Slaves in the West Indies.[208] In his treatise, Wilberforce urged that total emancipation was morally and ethically required, and that slavery was a national crime that must be ended by parliamentary legislation to gradually abolish slavery.[209] Members of Parliament did not quickly agree, and government opposition in March 1823 stymied Wilberforce's call for abolition.[210] On 15 May 1823, Buxton moved another resolution in Parliament for gradual emancipation.[211] Subsequent debates followed on 16 March and 11 June 1824 in which Wilberforce made his last speeches in the Commons, and which again saw the emancipationists outmanoeuvred by the government.

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Last years
Wilberforce's health was continuing to fail, and he suffered further illnesses in 1824 and 1825. With his family concerned that his life was endangered, he declined a peerage[214] and resigned his seat in Parliament, leaving the campaign in the hands of others.[174][215] Thomas Clarkson continued to travel, visiting anti-slavery groups throughout Britain, motivating activists and acting as an ambassador for the anti-slavery cause to other countries,[67] while Buxton pursued the cause of reform in Parliament.[216] Public meetings and petitions demanding emancipation continued, with an increasing number supporting immediate abolition rather than the gradual approach favoured by Wilberforce, Clarkson and their colleagues.[217][218]

Wilberforce was buried in Westminster Abbey next to Pitt. This memorial statue, by Samuel Joseph (1791–1850), was erected in 1840 in the north choir aisle.
In 1826, Wilberforce moved from his large house in Kensington Gore to Highwood Hill, a more modest property in the countryside of Mill Hill, north of London,[174] where he was soon joined by his son William and family. William had attempted a series of educational and career paths, and a venture into farming in 1830 led to huge losses, which his father repaid in full, despite offers from others to assist. This left Wilberforce with little income, and he was obliged to let his home and spend the rest of his life visiting family members and friends.[219] He continued his support for the anti-slavery cause, including attending and chairing meetings of the Anti-Slavery Society.[220]

Wilberforce approved of the 1830 election victory of the more progressive Whigs, though he was concerned about the implications of their Reform Bill which proposed the redistribution of parliamentary seats towards newer towns and cities and an extension of the franchise. In the event, the Reform Act 1832 was to bring more abolitionist MPs into Parliament as a result of intense and increasing public agitation against slavery. In addition, the 1832 slave revolt in Jamaica convinced government ministers that abolition was essential to avoid further rebellion.[221] In 1833, Wilberforce's health declined further and he suffered a severe attack of influenza from which he never fully recovered.[12] He made a final anti-slavery speech in April 1833 at a public meeting in Maidstone, Kent.[222] The following month, the Whig government introduced the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery, formally saluting Wilberforce in the process.[223] On 26 July 1833, Wilberforce heard of government concessions that guaranteed the passing of the Bill for the Abolition of Slavery.[224] The following day he grew much weaker, and he died early on the morning of 29 July at his cousin's house in Cadogan Place, London.

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His Christian faith drove him to help free the slaves in the British colonies!

The core members initially included Hans Scholl (Sophie's brother), Willi Graf, Christoph Probst and Alexander Schmorell (Schmorell was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 2012.) Initially, her brother had been keen to keep her unaware of their activities, but once she discovered them, she joined him and proved valuable to the group because, as a woman, her chances of being randomly stopped by the SS were much smaller. Calling themselves the White Rose, they instructed Germans to passively resist the Nazi government. The pamphlet used both Biblical and philosophical support for an intellectual argument of resistance.[9] In addition to authorship and protection, Scholl helped copy, distribute, and mail pamphlets while also managing the group's finances.[10]

She and the rest of the White Rose were arrested for distributing the sixth leaflet at the University of Munich on 18 February 1943. In the People's Court before Judge Roland Freisler on 22 February 1943, Scholl was recorded as saying these words:

Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.[11]

There was no testimony allowed for the defendants; this was their only defense.[12]

Grave of Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl, and Christoph Probst, in the Perlacher Friedhof, next to the Stadelheim prison in Munich
On 22 February 1943, Scholl, her brother, Hans, and their friend, Christoph Probst, were found guilty of treason and condemned to death. They were all beheaded by a guillotine by executioner Johann Reichhart in Munich's Stadelheim Prison only a few hours later, at 17:00 hrs. The execution was supervised by Walter Roemer, the enforcement chief of the Munich district court. Prison officials, in later describing the scene, emphasized the courage with which she walked to her execution. Her last words were:

How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?[11][13]

Fritz Hartnagel was evacuated from Stalingrad in January 1943, but did not return to Germany before Sophie was executed.

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On 18 February 1943, the Scholls brought a suitcase full of leaflets to the university main building. They hurriedly dropped stacks of copies in the empty corridors for students to find when they left the lecture rooms. Leaving before the lectures had ended, the Scholls noticed that there were some left-over copies in the suitcase and decided to distribute them. Sophie flung the last remaining leaflets from the top floor down into the atrium. This spontaneous action was observed by the university maintenance man, Jakob Schmid.[27] Hans and Sophie Scholl were taken into Gestapo custody. A draft of a seventh pamphlet, written by Christoph Probst, was found in the possession of Hans Scholl at the time of his arrest by the Gestapo. While Sophie Scholl got rid of incriminating evidence before being taken into custody, Hans did try to destroy the draft of the last leaflet by tearing it apart and trying to swallow it. However, the Gestapo recovered enough of it and were able to match the handwriting with other writings from Probst, which they found when they searched Hans's apartment.[28] The main Gestapo interrogator was Robert Mohr, who initially thought Sophie was innocent. However, after Hans had confessed, Sophie assumed full responsibility in an attempt to protect other members of the White Rose.

The Scholls and Probst were scheduled to stand trial before the Volksgerichtshof—the Nazi "People's Court" infamous for its unfair political trials, which more often than not ended with a death sentence—on 22 February 1943. They were found guilty of treason. Roland Freisler, head judge of the court, sentenced them to death. The three were executed the same day by guillotine at Stadelheim Prison. All three were noted for the courage with which they faced their deaths, particularly Sophie, who remained firm despite intense interrogation, and intimidation by Freisler during the trial. She replied: "You know as well as we do that the war is lost. Why are you so cowardly that you won't admit it?"[29] Immediately before Hans was executed, he cried out "Es lebe die Freiheit! – Long live freedom!", as the blade fell.

Role in preventing the Jewish deportation
Dimitar Peshev Square in Jaffa
The memorial plaque on the house in Sofia, where Peshev lived from 1939 to 1973
Peshev was a good friend of Bulgaria's Jewish community. However, he had not objected to the institution of the "Law for the Defense of the Nation" (ZZN), an anti-Jewish bill. In the beginning of March 1943, the Jews of Kyustendil were ordered by the Commissariat on the Jewish Issues to leave their homes with only a few belongings. Understanding the implications of this order, the citizens of Kyustendil appointed a delegation to ask the government to repeal this evacuation order.[2] On 8 March 1943 the delegation marched into Dimitar Peshev's office. One of the delegates, Peshev's Jewish friend, Jakob Baruch, informed him of the government's plan to deport the Jews. At first, Peshev thought Baruch's words to be untrue until he telephoned several high government officials who confirmed the rumor. By the morning of 9 March Peshev had made up his mind to halt the deportations.

Peshev tried several times to see Bogdan Filov but the prime minister refused. Next, he and his close friend and colleague, Petar Mihalev, went to see Interior Minister Petur Gabrovski insisting that he cancel the deportations. After much persuasion, Gabrovski finally called the governor of Kyustendil and instructed him to stop preparations for the Jewish deportations. By 5:30 p.m. on 9 March the order had been cancelled.[2][not in citation given] However, the order did not reach all the Bulgarian cities on time and, on the morning of 10 March, Bulgarian police began to round up Jews in Thrace and Macedonia.[citation needed] Almost all of the Jews in Bulgarian-occupied Thrace (some 4,000) were arrested and surrendered to the Germans, who then deported them to their deaths at Treblinka. Another group of about 1,200 Thrace Jews was moved to Salonika and then sent to Auschwitz. At the same time, all of the Jews of Macedonia were rounded up by the Bulgarian authorities; all but 165 were deported to Treblinka.[3]

Once Peshev learned about the cruelty of the deportation of the Jews of Thrace and Macedonia, he worked to ensure that the deportation of the Jews within the pre-war boundaries of Bulgaria would not occur.[4] Peshev wrote a letter to Filov on 19 March which aimed to prevent any future anti-Jewish legislation in Bulgaria. He, along with the Kyustendil delegates, got 43 government deputies to sign the letter. These signatures were only from members of the pro-government majority so that no one could accuse Peshev of acting against the government.

Even under the pressure from the Prime Minister, who was furious at Peshev's letter, 30 of the deputies refused to withdraw their signatures. As a result, Peshev was censured and dismissed from his position of Assembly Vice-chairman on 24 March

After World War II, Freeman graduated from high school and enlisted in the Army. Not only did he serve in World War II, but Freeman also served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He became a Master Sergeant in the Army Corps of Engineers. Specifically, he fought in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill during the Korean War and was later awarded Battlefield Commission, which gave him the opportunity to apply for flight school.

Freeman earned the nickname “Too Tall” because his 6’4” height was considered too tall to fly helicopters for the Army. The Army’s height restriction at that time was 6’2”.

He first flew fixed-wing aircraft and later switched to helicopters, having logged thousands of hours in chopper flight training.

In 1955, the Army’s height regulations changed to allow Freeman to fly. During the Vietnam War in 1965, Freeman was assigned to the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division.

Freeman’s life is most remembered for the events that occurred on November 14, 1965. At the time, he was a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion with the 1st Cavalry Division.

The brutal fight on November 14, 1965 was the first major confrontation between the large American and North Vietnamese forces. The fighting was so fierce that medevac units refused to step in and help rescue other soldiers because the battle was too dangerous.

Freeman’s unit was almost out of ammunition after fighting off the enemy. He risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire. He made 14 rescue mission trips to save roughly 30 wounded soldiers. He also delivered ammunition, water and medical supplies to other engaged units at Landing Zone X-Ray in the la Drang Valley of Vietnam.

All of Freeman’s flights were made into a small emergency landing zone only a couple of hundred yards away from the defensive perimeter, where other engaged units were holding off enemy fire.

One of Freeman’s rescued survivors on that day was U.S. Senator John McCain from Arizona.

Freeman was later promoted to the rank of Major, designated as Master Army Aviator, and sent home from Vietnam in 1966. He retired from the Army in 1967. After retirement, he continued to work as a pilot and flew helicopters for another 20 years while serving the U.S. Department of Interior to fight against wildfires, herd wild horses, and conduct animal censuses. Altogether, by the time Freeman retired in 1991, he clocked 22,000 total hours in flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

On July 16, 2001, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by former president George W. Bush. Freeman was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his act of bravery.

Among his many numerous awards and decorations, Freeman was a Purple Heart recipient. His Army wingman Lt. Col. Crandall is also a Purple Heart recipient.

The 2002 film We Were Soldiers is based on the 1st Cavalry Division’s battle against the enemy in the La Drang Valley of Vietnam, where Freeman and Crandall rescued soldiers from disaster.

On August 20, 2008, Freeman passed away from complications of Parkinson’s disease in Boise, Idaho at the age of 80. He was buried with full military honors at Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in Boise, Idaho.

In March of 2009, Congress passed an amendment to name the U.S. Post Office in Freeman’s hometown of McLain, Mississippi in honor of him, the “Major Ed W. Freeman Post Office”.....

After World War II, Freeman graduated from high school and enlisted in the Army. Not only did he serve in World War II, but Freeman also served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. He became a Master Sergeant in the Army Corps of Engineers. Specifically, he fought in the Battle of Pork Chop Hill during the Korean War and was later awarded Battlefield Commission, which gave him the opportunity to apply for flight school.

Freeman earned the nickname “Too Tall” because his 6’4” height was considered too tall to fly helicopters for the Army. The Army’s height restriction at that time was 6’2”.

He first flew fixed-wing aircraft and later switched to helicopters, having logged thousands of hours in chopper flight training.

In 1955, the Army’s height regulations changed to allow Freeman to fly. During the Vietnam War in 1965, Freeman was assigned to the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division.

Freeman’s life is most remembered for the events that occurred on November 14, 1965. At the time, he was a flight leader and second in command of a 16-helicopter lift unit of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion with the 1st Cavalry Division.

The brutal fight on November 14, 1965 was the first major confrontation between the large American and North Vietnamese forces. The fighting was so fierce that medevac units refused to step in and help rescue other soldiers because the battle was too dangerous.

Freeman’s unit was almost out of ammunition after fighting off the enemy. He risked his own life by flying his unarmed helicopter through a gauntlet of enemy fire. He made 14 rescue mission trips to save roughly 30 wounded soldiers. He also delivered ammunition, water and medical supplies to other engaged units at Landing Zone X-Ray in the la Drang Valley of Vietnam.

All of Freeman’s flights were made into a small emergency landing zone only a couple of hundred yards away from the defensive perimeter, where other engaged units were holding off enemy fire.

One of Freeman’s rescued survivors on that day was U.S. Senator John McCain from Arizona.

Freeman was later promoted to the rank of Major, designated as Master Army Aviator, and sent home from Vietnam in 1966. He retired from the Army in 1967. After retirement, he continued to work as a pilot and flew helicopters for another 20 years while serving the U.S. Department of Interior to fight against wildfires, herd wild horses, and conduct animal censuses. Altogether, by the time Freeman retired in 1991, he clocked 22,000 total hours in flying helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft.

On July 16, 2001, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by former president George W. Bush. Freeman was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his act of bravery.

Among his many numerous awards and decorations, Freeman was a Purple Heart recipient. His Army wingman Lt. Col. Crandall is also a Purple Heart recipient.

The 2002 film We Were Soldiers is based on the 1st Cavalry Division’s battle against the enemy in the La Drang Valley of Vietnam, where Freeman and Crandall rescued soldiers from disaster.

On August 20, 2008, Freeman passed away from complications of Parkinson’s disease in Boise, Idaho at the age of 80. He was buried with full military honors at Idaho State Veterans Cemetery in Boise, Idaho.

In March of 2009, Congress passed an amendment to name the U.S. Post Office in Freeman’s hometown of McLain, Mississippi in honor of him, the “Major Ed W. Freeman Post Office”.....

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Thanks this is why I made the thread to introduce people to hereos they didn't know AND others to introduce me to heroes I didn't know.

When France fell to Nazi Germany, the mission to resist the Nazis became increasingly important. Believing in the same ideas as former Pastor Charles Guillon, André and Magda Trocmé became very involved in a wide network organizing the rescue of Jews fleeing the deportation efforts of the Nazi implementation of their Final Solution. Following the establishment of the Vichy France regime during the occupation, Trocmé and other area ministers serving other parishes encouraged their congregations to shelter "the people of the Bible" and for their cities to be a "city of refuge."[2] Trocmé was a catalyst whose efforts led to Le Chambon and surrounding villages becoming a unique haven in Nazi-occupied France. Trocmé and his church members helped their town develop ways of resisting the dominant force they faced. Together they established first one, and then a number of "safe houses" where Jewish and other refugees seeking to escape the Nazis could hide. These houses received contributions from the Quakers, the Salvation Army, the American Congregational Church, the pacifist movement Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jewish and Christian ecumenical groups, the French Protestant student organization Cimade and the Swiss Help to Children in order to house and buy food supplies for the fleeing refugees. Many refugees were helped to escape to Switzerland following an underground railroad network.

With the help of many dedicated people, families were located who were willing to accommodate Jewish refugees; members of the community reported to the railroad station to gather the arriving refugees, and the town's schools were prepared for the increased enrollment of new children, often under false names. Many village families and numerous farm families also took in children whose parents had been shipped to concentration camps in Germany. Trocmé refused to accept the definitions of those in power. "We do not know what a Jew is. We only know men", he said when asked by the Vichy authorities to produce a list of the Jews in the town.[3] Between 1940 and 1945 when World War II ended in Europe, it is estimated that about 3500 Jewish refugees including many children were saved by the small village of Le Chambon and the communities on the surrounding plateau because the people refused to give in to what they considered to be the illegitimate legal, military, and police power of the Nazis.

These activities eventually came to the attention of the anti-Jewish Vichy regime. Authorities and "security agents" were sent to perform searches within the town, most of which were unsuccessful. One arrest by the Gestapo led to the death of several young Jewish men in deportation camps. Their house director Daniel Trocmé, André's second cousin, refused to let the children put in his care be sent away without him; he was then arrested and later died in the Majdanek concentration camp. When Georges Lamirand, a minister in the Vichy government, made an official visit to Le Chambon on August 15, 1942, Trocmé expressed his opinions to him. Days later, the Vichy gendarmes were sent into the town to locate "illegal" aliens. Amidst rumors that Trocmé was soon to be arrested, he urged his parishioners to "do the will of God, not of men". He also spoke of the Biblical passage Deuteronomy 19:2–10, which speaks of the entitlement of the persecuted to shelter. The gendarmes were unsuccessful, and eventually left the town.

In February 1943, André Trocmé was arrested along with Edouard Theis and the public school headmaster Roger Darcissac. Sent to Saint-Paul d'Eyjeaux, an internment camp near Limoges, they were released after four weeks and pressed to sign a commitment to obey all government orders. Trocmé and Theis refused and were nevertheless released. They went underground where Trocmé was still able to keep the rescue and sanctuary efforts running smoothly with the help of many friends and collaborators

A member of the Nazi Party since 1935, as time passed Hosenfeld grew disillusioned with the party and its policies, especially as he saw how Poles, and especially Jews, were treated. He and several fellow German Army officers felt sympathy for all peoples of occupied Poland. Ashamed of what some of their countrymen were doing, they offered help to those they could whenever possible.

Hosenfeld befriended numerous Poles and even made an effort to learn their language. He also attended Mass, received Holy Communion, and went to confession in Polish churches, even though this was forbidden on the orders of the Nazi Party. His actions on behalf of Poles began as early as autumn 1939, when against regulations he allowed Polish prisoners of war access to their families and even pushed successfully for the early release of at least one.[2] During his time in Warsaw, Hosenfeld used his position to give refuge to people, regardless of their background, including at least one politically persecuted anti-Nazi ethnic German, who were in danger of persecution, even arrest by the Gestapo, sometimes by getting them the papers they needed and jobs at the sports stadium that was under his oversight.[3] Hosenfeld surrendered to the Soviets at Błonie, a small Polish city about 30 km west of Warsaw, with the men of a Wehrmacht company he was leading.

Imprisonment and death
He was sentenced to 25 years of hard labor[4] for alleged war crimes, simply on account of his unit affiliation, and was tortured by the Soviet secret services, as they believed Hosenfeld had been active in the German Abwehr or even the Sicherheitsdienst. In a 1946 letter to his wife in West Germany, Hosenfeld named the Jews whom he had saved and begged her to contact them and ask them to arrange his release.

In 1950, Szpilman learned the name of the German officer who had offered him assistance. After much soul searching, Szpilman sought the intercession of a man whom he privately considered "a bastard," – Jakub Berman, the head of the Polish secret police. Several days later, Berman paid a visit to the Szpilman's home and said that there was nothing he could do. He added, If your German were still in Poland, then we could get him out. But our comrades in the Soviet Union won't let him go. They say your officer belonged to a detachment involved in spying – so there is nothing we can do about it as Poles, and I am powerless.[5]

Szpilman never believed Berman's claims of powerlessness. In an interview with Wolf Biermann, Szpilman described Berman as "all powerful by the grace of Stalin," and lamented, "So I approached the worst rogue of the lot, and it did no good."[6] Hosenfeld died in a Soviet prison camp on 13 August 1952, shortly before 10:00 in the evening, from a rupture of the thoracic aorta, possibly sustained during torture.

Michael Randle
British civil rights activist peace activist implicated in the George Blake spy scandal.
Michael Randle used a modified camper van to smuggle this spy out of England and drive him to Eastern Europe.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Randle
This man was a relation to my grandfather who divorced my grandmother in the 1950's but she kept the name, my grandmother who raised me became like this to me when I found out in adulthood what happened.

I think this country gas-lit her in the 1970's looking for this guy since she married into that family and the country went apeshit looking for him bugging her phone and everything.
But my grandmother, sweetest, kindest lady, came off as Tupac in regard to the Police.

This guy SHAPED my Heroine, which is my maternal Grandmother, that's why Michael Randle, plus, I guess he stood up for what he thought was right, and campaigned for peace.